The biggest e-commerce trend of 2019 and what it means to your business

Jan 1, 2020 7:01 PM

Pickupp Business

Pickupp Logistic Service

The biggest e-commerce trend of 2019 and what it means to your business

We all know that fast, reliable shipping is crucial to running a successful e-commerce business. But how fast is fast? Did you know that a delay of just three days can have a massive impact on your conversion rates?

More than half of holiday shoppers believe that their fast-tracked orders should arrive within two days of ordering, according to the Deloitte 2018 holiday survey

While a few days of delivery time may be the norm just three years back, the percentage of consumers that consider delivery within three to four days as fast shipping has quickly plunged from 63% in 2015 to 25% in 2018.

“Nowadays, most shoppers are expecting to get their fast shipping parcels within 48 hours.”

As express shipping is becoming more popular than ever, consumers will be expecting even shorter delivery times in the next few years. This means that you’re losing out on many potential customers if your e-commerce business isn’t yet on board with a 48-hour shipping program. As an e-commerce business, if you have yet to implement fast shipping policies, you are quickly falling behind your customers’ expectations.

Amazon: From two-day to same-day shipping

So how did we go from experiencing lengthy wait time to accessing instant shipping to nearly everything? When Amazon launched its free two-day shipping program in 2005, the tech giant has forever changed our expectations of online shopping. Its promise of a two-day shipping period massively cut down what the online delivery wait time used to be, and for the first time, online shopping became like a real alternative to shopping at brick-and-mortar stores.

Evidently, it paid off to be the first to introduce an unlimited two-day shipping scheme to customers. Until 2018 Q3, Amazon has earned US$2,582 million in sales, making up 49% of the whole US e-commerce market. Having dominated the national market, the tech behemoth unveiled yet another breakthrough earlier this year, launching an unlimited one-day shipping concept to its Prime customers and further reducing its default shipping time by one day.

Same-day delivery as the new norm

“Following the lead of Amazon’s recent innovation, retail giants Walmart and Target have also announced their own free one-day delivery programs, sealing the deal of same-day shipping as the new norm.”

Back in Hong Kong, while some online retailers have caught onto this new trend with Baby Central now offering same-day delivery for orders made by 3pm, the one-day delivery benchmark has not yet been widely adopted. This slow uptake of supply chain innovations has contributed to sluggish growth in Hong Kong’s e-commerce sector as the share of e-commerce sales in the total retail sales is projected to increase only slightly from 3.1% in 2016 to 6.1% in 2021 (Source: Statista 2019).

4-hour delivery for your business

"To help you scale up your business, Pickupp now offers affordable fast shipping options with 4-hour delivery services starting from HK$32 per order and next-day delivery from HK$25.”

While Amazon has splurged US$800 million dollars to roll out its next-day shipping program, you can now spend a fraction of its cost to achieve lightning-speed delivery that will help you build customer trust and boost your conversion rates. Not sure if you should opt for our four-hour or next-day delivery services? Read our in-depth breakdown of the two different plans here. Read more: Pickupp features: How to optimise sales performance with the help of smart logistics? Contact us today to learn more today.